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Talk:Episode 5: Polarized - Theories/@comment-29245530-20160918003842/@comment-84.56.216.96-20171101200046
This is the most convincing theory I have heard or read about LiS, period. Because all the other interpretations of the two "endings" leave one thing wide open: the beginning of the story. How do we come to witness the storm in the first place? Your idea of a later Max reflecting on how she could have done things differently makes perfect sense here. And by starting from this premise a lot of things that are otherwise very difficult to theorize just fall into place. Do we really need to account for supernatural phenomena in a 'materially realistic' world? It is so much more believable, if these are real events but seen through an elaborate recollection by the protagonist. And of course any of us can go back and forth in time in their own mind, undo actions, experience strange weather situations etc. There is one caveat with your theory though. You assume the 'bad' ending to be the 'real' one, which is possible by following your premise, but not necessarily so. Max could in fact be experiencing survivor's guilt from several events in the game, all well discussed: the demise of the town, Chloe's murder, Kate's suicide for starters, but then she might also be asking herself if she could have prevented any of Jefferson's actions, i.e. if she should or could have done anything against Victoria's murder or even Rachel's. This makes it plausible she imagines herself in the 'dark room' herself. I might be adding the death of Chloe's father to this, just because, well it's easily associated in the process and considering she left and had a good life in Seattle while Chloe's life had gone downwhill from then on. Thus both endings, even the one with Chloe surviving, could be a thought experiment by Max Caulfield, following the route of "what could I have done to prevented all this" - starting with the storm and Chloe. Which leaves me wondering, where the 'real' Max is when she starts her first 'vision' of the storm. Is she safe and recollecting the storm from a distance? Is she with Chloe? Is she actually thinking of all the events right as she walks up to the lighthouse during the storm? Maybe she is the only one who survived the storm. We see her struggling up to the lighthouse alone, and later she comments that she will be "safe there". It is even plausible she does not survive the storm either, as there's the boat crashing into the lighthouse in the beginning and Max being struck by debris. Sure, she wakes up in the classroom - but what if she is actually being buried by pieces of the lighthouse and thinks of what she could have done differently while she is awaiting rescue. Weird phenomena towards the end of the game could be explained by her changing state of consciouness while being trapped under what is left of lighthouse. We would not even know if she herself survives the storm at all. Then both endings are 'fake' in a sense. What actually will have happened in the beginning and the end is the storm and the destruction of everything we witnessed. Somewhere I read that LiS was not going for a "greek tragedy kind of ending". What if that's what actually happened though on a base level - and we experience Max's futile attempts trying to make sense of it all on a removed 'meta level'. I think the quality of your theory really cannot be praised enough, actually because it can be modified or expanded upon like I have done above. It is food for thought. Hella great!